Evaluation of Relationship Marketing in Health Care Industry

Study of Evaluation of Relationship Marketing in Health Care Industry

Within the health care sector context, relationship marketing is very important part for the success of the organization and for retaining its clients. Relationship marketing is an approach intended to look after customer long-term engagement, loyalty and relations; it aims at developing strong loyal customers by offering correct and direct information by having open communication with them, therefore proper relationship marketing strategies and communication strategies should be used for the development and improvement of the health sector.

This study sought to evaluate the role of relationship marketing in health care sector in context with the Mumbai health care organization, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital, the study specifically aims:

To analyze the benefits of relationship marketing in the healthcare sector

To review critically the literature of the research associated to relationship marketing.

To evaluate critically the significance of relationships marketing strategy in the health care industry in context with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital.

To offer a significant recommendation for healthcare industry in India by which they can improve their efficiency and quality by implementing the relationship marketing.

This paper presents research of relationship marketing in the industry of health care: A Case Study of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Mumbai. Analyzed findings are presented in accordance with a rigorous sampling frame of 50 respondents through questionnaires. The paper concludes by suggesting methods for further improvement of the relationship marketing in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.

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1 – INTRODUCTION

Relationship marketing refers to the study of the economic relationship along with the social strap and it focuses on maintaining long term profitable relationship with the customers. Relationship marketing came into existence in the early period of 90’s that has drawn the needs of the direct relationship with the clients and the service providers. The foremost aim and goal of relationship marketing is to maintain long term relationship with the clients so that the clients don’t switch to the competitors.

Relationship marketing includes various strategies which not only help in improving the relationship with customers but also in providing them unique benefits which other organizations do not offer (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2012). The successful implementation of relationship marketing strategies results in attracting new customers and in retaining existing ones. The dimensions of relationship marketing have changed over a period of time. Earlier simple tools such as post cards, telephone etc were used to maintain relationship with the customers but with the advent of technology and latest innovations, managing customer relationship has become much more detailed and tedious job (Gummesson, 2012). These days variety of techniques such as e-mail, telephones, special loyalty cards etc. are being used to maintain long term relationship with customers. For standing out in the health care industry special care and services should be provided so that the satisfaction level of the clients can be increased and better care of patients can be done.

In the modern era the business is so giant and complex that the individuals has no time to spend on others, but it is very important to maintain relationship between the employees and the management. Therefore it has become very important for the organization to maintain relationship with the stake holders in order to lead in an industry and compete with its competitor. Hence relationship marketing has become an very important tool for the health care industry.The main and foremost objective of the research report is based on how relationship marketing can make a difference, in an healthcare industry and how it can prove to be an advantage for an health care organization for competing with its competitors.The idea of relationship marketing is more prevalent in the service sector industry where customers are considered as the whole and soul for the organizations. In hospitals the concept of relationship marketing is relatively new and requires special measures to make it adaptable to the industry. In this research report various strategies of relationship marketing are studied and understood in context of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital. The report analyzes various concepts of relationship marketing and how it could be successfully implemented in the health care sector. It also includes understanding the steps which are required to implement effectively a relationship marketing strategy.

1.1. Health

In general words health is the level of metabolic or practical efficiency of a human being; it is the common state of an individual’s mind, spirit and body, generally detonating to be free from pain, sickness or injury. According to WHO (the World Health Organization) health is a condition of complete social well-being, physically and mentally not simply the absence of illness or infection, this was a wide definition given by WHO in 1946. Even though it later face lot of criticize, as there was confusion regarding the world complete. Every person cares about its health and therefore health industry is such an industry whose demand keeps growing as time passes.

1.2. Health Care

Health care is identifying the diseases and doing the treatment, and prevention of illness, infections, wound, and other psychological and bodily impairments in a person. Health care is offered by pharmacy, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, practitioners in medicine and other healthcare providers. It refers to the effort done in offering tertiary care, secondary care and primary care in public health. Health care is usually regarded as a significant determinant in encouraging the well-being and general health of human around the globe. The best example of this is the elimination of small pox globally in 1980; the World health organization declared it has the first disease which was totally eliminated by conscious health care involvement.

1.3. Health Care Industry

The health care industry is also known as medical industry, in the modern era health sector has been divided into many departments and sections and has made the health care industry very diverse in matters of specialization, the professionals are experts in treating their patients in particular and specific fields, now a day’s it has become very easy for the patients to find doctors and clinics specialized in curing particular diseases, therefore basically the health care industry depends upon the trained professionals in meeting the needs of the people. The health care industry is one of the biggest and speedily rising industries in the world, occupying almost 10% of the GDP (Gross domestic product) of developed countries. The countries that spend the most money in health sectors are Switzerland, France and United States which spend 10.7%, 11.2% and 16% of the gross domestic product respectively. Health care industry in India is one of the biggest and challenging sectors; it has helped in economic growth of the country. It has improved tremendously in the health sector in past few years, and it has also managed to attract patients from other countries to treat in India which is generally known as medical tourism, thus medical tourism in India is increasing due to the better facilities provides, yet India still lack behind in many areas, like proper health services, equipments, trained doctors etc.

1.4. Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is an approach intended to look after customer long-term engagement, loyalty and relations; it aims at developing strong loyal customers by offering correct and direct information by having open communication with them. For relationship marketing, a CRM (customer relationship management) approach is used for focusing on customer’s welfare (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2012). Relationship marketing generally means a type of marketing which pays more attention on the customer satisfaction rather than just increasing the sales or profit of the organization or firm. Relationship marketing is largely acknowledged as broadly implemented strategy for encouraging and managing an organization relation with sales forecast and customers. It widens to inbound marketing hard work in which it includes a combination of application development, seek optimization, strategic content, public media and public relation. It differs from other forms of marketing as it aims at identifying the long term relation with the clients and keep on communicating with them beyond all promotions (Bejou, 2012). In recent years relationship marketing has changed in many ways, due to increase in globalization, internet and mobile services and many high technology and innovation, the relationship marketing has become complex, intense and more competitive as now a day’s almost every industry and organizations uses relationship marketing, it uses technology to systematize and coordinate organization procedure. The main goal of research marketing is to discover, magnetize and win new customers, take care of them, maintain the existing customers of the organization and attract previous customers so that they could come back to them. The reason of every organization adopting the relationship marketing is that when it starts working, the organization achieves synergy by increasing the earning of the organization and decreasing the operational costs which benefits the organization as well as the customers.

1.5. Relationship Marketing In Health Care Sector

In health sector, the relationship marketing plays an important role, as it deals directly with the patience and it deals with the critical aspect of a patient health, therefore it is very important to build loyal customers and increase the goodwill of the organization and provide best services to the patience, in health industry the profit earning should not be the major goal, it should be the satisfaction of the customers, treating them and sending the customers back home with best treatment. It is very important to train the doctors, nurses and other related person properly and accurately because they deal with the crucial health of the patience which makes huge difference to their lives. The Internet and media have become trusted sources for medical and health information due to their easy effortlessness access to the people around the world. Due to different strategies used in relationship marketing by the health care sector, it has become very easy and convenient for the patients as they can easily search the best hospitals and doctors online, and a find a specialist in particular field. They can access to online forums and exchange information about their experience with the hospitals or doctors and can get feedback from other patients too, the aim of health care relationship marketing it to avoid untrustworthy information and provide proper and reliable source to its customers about medical and health care. Initiatives are taken to increase the awareness of medical and health care by increasing contact with the people and former, present and future patients through electronic mails, online forums and newsletters. Relationship marketing has developed and enhanced health sector in a tremendous way , like many health care centers not only check the patient’s blood pressure but also gives them a best personalized health plans , many health care centers provides there reports online, where the patient can just login and get access to its health reports, with all this convenient and better facilities it helps the patient to get high living standards and healthy lifestyle, which encourages them to play an active role in awaking themselves about their disease and taking care of their health.

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1.6. Background of the Organization

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital and Medical research institute was founded in 2006. It is situated in Andheri west Mumbai, India, it is named after the wife of Dhirubhai Ambani, who was the founder of reliance group of companies. The main people associated with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital and Medical research institute are Dr. Vikram Chatwal and Tina Ambani (chairperson), almost all kind of health services are provide and has all types of units like ICU (intensive care unit),CCU ( Coronary care unit),PICU (Pediatric intensive care unit) and NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit). It is the only hospital in Mumbai to function with a full time specialist system that provides best medical services with 520 nurses, 103 full time doctors, 200 paramedics and 750 beds. The history of building the hospital is heart touching, it was an initiative by Dr Nitu Mandke, who was an excellent doctor, who reached to that position after lot of struggle has she was the first person in her family to choose the health field. she had a dream to build a hospital in Mumbai, with lot of passion and dedication Dr Nitu Mandke started the work of building an hospital but sadly it could not be completed due to her death in 2003, after her death the Mandke foundation approached the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group which willing took the project, and completed the work of building the hospital in 2008. In memory of Dr Nitu Mandke the hospital’s health care convention centre is dedicated to her. The hospital was build with the vision and mission to build an international health care institute which has the combination of both ethical values and best health care treatment with the culture of compassion and care. In early 2008 it had a soft launch, in which the many specialist and doctors accepted the offer to work with the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital and Medical research institute, but it only became operational in January 2009, it has a vital corporate social responsibility initiative from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group. It is intended to increase the goodwill of the health services in India by providing more importance in brilliance in medical services, diagnostic activities and research facilities.

1.7. Context of Research

Relationship marketing helps in many aspects like developing relationship with its clients, retaining its customers, and maintaining long and strong relationship with its clients (Gronross, 1990). In order to induce relationship marketing in the health care organization work frame 4 Cs and marketing mix should be implemented. Therefore, the research highlights the significant relationship marketing elements that are deployed at every hospital levels or individual clinic of the healthcare industry.

1.8. Significance of the Research

This study will be an important effort in promoting the strategies used in the relationship marketing of the health care sector. This study will also be useful to the instructors and students who are interested studying and analyzing the activities of health care and the role of Indian health care industry for enhancement of the lives of people. Moreover, this research will provide recommendations on how to improve Indian health care industry in accordance to different respective fields. It will also serve as a future reference for researchers on the subjects of research marketing in health care industry. This research would prove a breakthrough for the people who want to do research and the students who are studying health policy and health issues for them this research would prove as a learning resource.

1.9. Aim of the Research

The foremost aim of the research report is to know the importance of the relationship marketing in the industry of health care: A Case Study of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Mumbai.

1.10. Objectives of the Research

To study the literature review and know it outcomes.

To analyze and know the importance of relationships marketing strategy in the health care Sector.

To know the advantages of relationship marketing in the healthcare sector in context with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital.

1.11. Research Questions

What are the different benefits of Relationship Marketing in the healthcare industry?

What activities should be included in relationship marketing in the industry of health care?

What are the different ways through which relationship marketing is maintained by the health care industry?

1.12. The Structure of the Dissertation

The dissertation structure comprises of the following:

Front page

Abstract

Content of tables

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Literature review

Research Methodology

Finding and analysis

Conclusion and Recommendations

Bibliography

The first part is the introduction, which consists of the basic information about health, health care, health care industry, relationship marketing, relationship marketing in health care industry and the background about the organization Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital and Medical research institute. It also includes the significance of the project to the researchers and students and the aim and objectives of the project to know the importance of the relationship marketing in the industry of health care: A Case Study of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Mumbai.

The Literature review is a description of what has been published or available on a subject by credited researchers and scholars, it is kind of a composition of the views of different authors and scholars about the related topic. Research methodology, is the section where you provide reasons for choosing particular methods of research and what are the different tools and ways used in the research project. The final part of the research will briefly define the result of this study, that is the finding and analysis of data which involves a number of directly connected processes which are performed with the purpose of abbreviating the collected data and arranging these in a manner that they justify the research objectives. The findings and data analysis is where you give the data created during the course of research and evaluate them. In this project it is done in brief on the basis of qualitative data (Dawson, 2002). In Conclusion and recommendations we include results of our research project and new ideas, it also includes a indication on doing the research learning and also recognize ways in which you might take the effort further as added research or investigation, in this research report the conclusion and recommendation is drawn in the end in which you sum up your result and signify conclusions from them, perhaps in relation to findings and research literature (Kumar, 2005).